>>77183537I'll share my story in detail, because I think it's noteworthy how I wound up /here/. Apologies for the length, I am a certified writefag.
I was a lifelong weeb and vocaboomer well before getting into vtubers. I was aware of them since basically the beginning (and even had friends ask me what they were, because they assumed that vtubers were similar to vocaloid in some way.) So, I knew what they were, but the content never really appealed to me. I never got into the culture of livestreams and let's plays, I was not really someone who watched youtube much at all, and I only knew that twitch was "where everyone moved when livestream started charging money", if that tells you how old and out of the loop I was. I knew of Kizuna Ai and I had seen the design of a certain blue girl, and that was about the extent of my knowledge. I thought all vtubers were Japanese-language-speaking idol-types reading prepared content to an audience in short skit-type segments. To summarize: I was completely uninvolved not just in vtuber culture, but in streamer/youtube culture entirely, as well as in the idol and kpop scene. I live under a rock, essentially.
However, I am in a lot of disparate little communities scattered around the tattered remains of the old web, and so are some of my longtime companions. A friend of mine was in a pseudo-bbs when Luxiem debuted and was first exposed to english-language vtubers from there. Friend thought "hm. That's interesting," and started to watch them. After a little while, when they had been thoroughly hooked, they showed them to me.
It took about a month. I have a friend who is far removed from the sphere of weebshit who watched, perplexed, as I slowly went from "this man- yes, he's an anime, it's called a vtuber- thought fried rice was literally fried uncooked rice" to "I don't know why I am watching this anime man play a game, no one's making me," to "no, I will not stop calling that anime man my wife." I distinctly remember when I first followed a vtuber, and then about two days later I had followed all of EN and half of JP. I didn't have a youtube account prior to doing this. Why would I? Oshi mark? Akasupa? Pog? Ligma? Zatsudan?? It was a whirlwind of new shit to learn.
I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into vtuber hell about two months before Noctyx debuted -- and much as I care for Luxiem, it was Noctyx that really locked me in the vtuber basement. Deja Vu was the moment I realized that this was something special, I think. I was captivated by it, from Uki himself to his wonderful singing, the beautiful video, Fuuchan's wonderful narration at the beginning -- it all spoke to me. Seeing older content creators from... different walks of life come into this strange new realm of media was an eye-opener for just how powerfully transformative vtubing can be. Inhabiting a beautiful piece of artwork so that your talents and your true self may shine... I think there's something beautiful in that which is lost along the way for many people. It doesn't matter how someone looks, it matters who they are on the inside... at its best, vtubing gives people a space to showcase their soul and all of its strengths, and I think that's really something remarkable.
On that night, I changed. And because misery loves company, I dragged the people I love into this hyperfixation with me... all these years later and we're all still here.
On that note, I see a lot of talk in spaces about how "there are better streamers to watch," as though people /here/ have literally never seen anything but Nijisanji. I can say that, for me, I have not been sedentary in my engagement with vtubers. I watch everyone, everywhere, constantly. I watch EN. I watch Stars. I watch other corpos, and I watch indies. Some of my long-time friends are vtubers now, and I watch them, I watch the friends they've made, I've seen how lovely and interconnected communities can be (and how messy it can get if things go awry.) I have watched things change, and grow, for better and for worse, I've seen the boom and now I'm watching the bust. I am not a sycophant blind to the greater world of vtubing beyond the borders of youtube dot com -- and as a Yuguy, I can add that Anycolor are not exactly in my good books, to put it mildly, and they haven't been for a long time.
No, why I remain here is simple. At the end of the day, I'm just tuning in to watch the content creators I enjoy. It really is that simple. I was drawn into this because of how unhinged and amusing the boys are, and I stay because everyone remains unhinged and amusing -- and more talented than ever before. And that goes for everyone, everywhere... not just Nijisanji. Life is too short to put energy into the things you hate, and it's far more rewarding to focus on the things that bring you joy.
Thank you for reading, and sorry for the blogpost. Won't happen again. o7
